lifted anchor, the visitors having brought on board half a dozen
cases of champagne--as a matter of fact we had seen the steward opening
bottles on the poop. In an hour the _Tuitoga_ was a long way ahead.

Rosser said to us at dinner--

"That brigantine will come to grief. She's overmasted, and the fellow
who has her ought not to be trusted with her. He's going to make a mess
of things."

Then in his slow, drawling manner, he told us that the command of
the _Tuitoga_ had been given to an ex-lieutenant of the navy, whose
knowledge of sailing vessels was confined to his youthful experiences on
one of the service training brigs; but King George of Tonga was anxious
to secure an English naval officer to command the new ship, and out of
some hundreds of eager applicants, Lieutenant Raye had been selected.

By sundown the brigantine was hull down ahead of us, though the barque
was a very smart vessel, and we were then making eleven knots. At
midnight, I heard the mate give orders to take in royals and topgallant
sails, and going on deck, found the wind had almost died away.

Rosser was on deck, and told me that we were "going to get it hot from
the N.E. before long;" and by four in the morning we were under topsails
and lower courses only, the ship flying before a most unpleasant sea. I
turned in again, and slept till daylight, when the second mate gave me a
call.

"Come on deck and see something pretty."

The "something pretty" was the brigantine, which was in sight about a
mile away on our lee bow. She was in a terrible mess. Her fore and main
royal masts and topgallant masts and jibboom had apparently all been
carried away together, and she was almost lying on her beam ends. We ran
down to her, and saw that her crew were busy in cutting away the spars
and sails alongside. All her boats were gone, and her for'ard deck house
had started, and was working to and fro with every sea.

In less than half an hour the mate and six hands from the barque were
on board, assisting the crew, cutting away the wire rigging and trimming
the cargo, the shifting of which had nearly sent her to the bottom. I
went with the boat to lend a hand, and the second mate of the brigantine
told me that the young captain had refused to listen to the mate's
suggestion to shorten sail, when the officer told him that the wind
would certainly come away suddenly from the N.E. The consequence was
that a furious squall took her aback, and had not the ji